Once Upon a Time Season Finale Recap: Something Bad Is Coming

The following recap, by the very definition of the word “recap,” contains spoilers from the season finale of Once Upon a Time.

Wasn’t it Huey Lewis who once sang of the power of love? But more on that in a minute.

The first season finale of ABC’s Once Upon a Time — and make no mistake, there will be a Season 2 — was everything the pages of TVLine told you it would be. “Crazy-bananas” (to quote cast member Josh Dallas, who certainly is no Pinocchio). “Severely intense,” as exec producer Eddy Kitsis put it. And yes, it left you, in its final 60 seconds, thinking, “Holy, holy, holy s–t.”

The plotting of the episode was thrilling, tight and danced around no loopholes, addressing the elephant in the room — Henry’s grave state, how he got there and how might he be saved — and then introducing something a lot bigger than an elephant, in another room.

Emma and Regina arrive at the hospital frantic over Henry’s fate, yet Dr. Whale is at a loss to treat the boy knowing not what felled him. And it is while rummaging through Henry’s book bag — and laying hands on the his storybook — that Emma, already ever-so-slightly suspecting that magic is afoot, “flashes” and becomes a believer.

Once that tussle is out of the way and Regina cops to her true identity, the two ladies — sharing an agenda — visit Mr. Gold/Rumplestiltskin to see if he has access to any magic that could save Henry. As it would turn out, Rumple while back in fairytale land socked something away “for a rainy day”: a flask of “true love” potion, which he encased in a jeweled egg and charged Charming with placing inside the belly of the beast — aka Maleficent’s monstrous alter ego.

Thing is, Maleficent, when the Queen laid down the dark curse, was transported to Storybrooke in that form, and now dwells way, way, way below ground. Emma is the only one who can fetch the egg, and she is lowered via elevator to the cave, where she at first unloads her pistol into the dragon, to no avail. (Had to try, right?) She then decides to make use of the sword provided by Rumplestiltskin — one that belonged to Charming — and hurls it through the air and smack dab into the beast’s soft spot. Biff-bam-kablooey, the critter is defeated, its egg-cellent stash revealed.

Alas, Emma then gets a bit daft and, when the ‘vator stalls near the top of the shaft, lobs the egg to Rumplestiltskin — who promptly flits away with it, having bound and gagged Regina above. But before the ladies can chase the imp, they get pinged by the hospital. Henry didn’t make it. He’s passed on. He’s no more. Dead parrot and all that. However….

In bidding her boy goodbye, Emma plants a kiss on his forehead, and just as with Charming and Snow way back when in a realm far, far away, Henry is revived by true love. Not only that, everyone in Storybrooke realizes their true identities, cuing up a glorious, open-the-tear ducts reunion between Mary Margaret’s Snow and David’s Prince Charming. All is good!

‘Cept something bad is coming….

You see, Jefferson aka Mad Hatter, desperate to be reunited with his daughter, infiltrated the hospital ward where Regina/the Evil Queen keeps her most valuable captives. He found Belle and sent her to Mr. Gold with the message that Regina had locked her away. Rumple was gobsmacked to be reunited with his love, who alas had no recollection of their fairytale romance, but promised that he would protect her, as asked. And to that end, he took the “true love” vial, pinched from Emma, and brought it to the well that August (now back to 100-percent wood, sad) first showed us a few weeks back. And by dropping the flask into the waters below — waters that have the power to restore that which has been lost — Rumple conjured up a cotton candy-like smoke that crept along and then enveloped Storybrooke.

Magic is coming to the Maine burg, Rumple told his visibly worried love, and with magic comes power — something Regina, heretofore sobbing in Henry’s bedroom, seemed to appreciate as she gazed out the window and smirked.

Once fans, what did you think of the Season 1 finale? Quite edge-of-your-seat, crazy-romantic and then haunting, no? What do you think Season 2 will entail, with magic in play in quaint Storybrooke? And are you excited to follow the Snow/Charming story back in fairytale land, as they aim to take back the kingdom, together?

i just dont have words to express how i feel after watching this episode!!! it was amazing and i loved how everyone started to remember!! i even cried three times in the episode!! they did an amazing work with the finale!!! congrats Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz and all the cast and crew! :)

I love it! I was squeeing away when Charming and Snow reunited in the street :) to be honest I was hoping to have a reunion with Charming, Snow and Emma, but I understand why that didn’t happen. I am very much looking forward to next season, and I hope with magic coming back that August does too, I had come to love him :)

Seriously? You’ve just realized you’re someone else and you’ve been reunited with your true love, and you wouldn’t take time to kiss them? Everything happened very quickly, too. There wasn’t time for them to be casual about being reunited and then go see if they can find their kid before the magic returned. David left town shortly after 8::00am. The magic returned at 8:15am.

I think it was the obvious and proper thing for them to finally (finally, finally) renew their romance. It was pretty clear that everyone went confused for a bit as their brains caught up with everything, so finally seeing your spouse? That’d be an immediate thing. Emma’s an adult – she can wait a minute. ;)

We have a whole host of reunions to look forward to in Sept.. Abigail/Kathryn and Frederick/gym teacher, Marco/Gepetto and August/Pinocchio, Mad hatter/Jefferson and Grace/Phoebe, Blue Fairy/Mother Superior and Archie/Jiminy, Grumpy and Pink Fairy [forgot their other names], and eventually Rumpel and Baelfire. And, I’ll bet Maleficent rises like a Phoenix from the ashes. Wasn’t the nurse in tonight’s episode Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother? I thought Rumpel killed her.

Yeah. I lol when she did that. What an epic way to a brilliant season. Season 2 can’t come soon enough. I must say Regina’s smile said it all. One of the best season finales i have seen in a long time.

I read somewhere that the writers try to add snippets of humor to lighten darker moments…I hadn’t noticed them until recently (although Leroy has had a few, come to think of it). You had to know the gun would be ineffective, but it was *funny*. So was Charming’s comment about needing a smaller egg. :-)

I didn’t really think Jefferson, the Huntsman or Belle were really necessary to the plot but they wanted to get them in as fan favourites. I was creeped out at Belle and Rumplestiltskin but I ended up feeling so sorry for her. She thought he was a good person who was infected but he’s just as evil as he always was and still choosing magic over her.

Just because someone doesn’t like one aspect of the story, doesn’t make them a sour lemon. I gave the finale an A, but agree with Sara. Belle and Bae both don’t want him to use the magic for good reasons, he does terrible things. And when he chooses the magic over them, which he has now done to Belle twice, he clearly loves the power more than either of them.

Rumbelle could be creepy if you think too hard about it, but the actors sell it so well (in my opinion) that it ends up being touching and sweet. Maybe he didn’t choose magic over Belle or Bae; was he just immersed in it for so long in FTL that he thinks he can have it all? It makes sense for the plot–after all, a totally good Rumpelstiltskin would be so *boring,* :-) but it did seem like he jumped from Belle to magic back a a bit too quickly for my tastes.

They tackled so many things that I thought the producers were gonna leave for later seasons! Something spilled and the series went all over the place! I wish this season finale would’ve been 2 hours long because I feel Belle’s storyline was rushed, and to be honest, it all seemed a bit rush, but I guess that’s why the producers predicted A HOLY SH*T. Um, I’m a bit lost on what to feel for what Rumple did in the end because I was sure he’d wanna do something really bad to Regina for keeping Belle from him, and I guess for that he needs magic. For a moment I thought he wanted back his son… AH WTF IS GONNA HAPPEN NEXT… FALL 2012 couldn’t feel farther!

Agreed. It felt like they dragged out the season and then magically everything happened at once. Then they destroy the whole premise of the show and introduce a new one at the last minute. This show both excites me and frustrates me.

I loved the finale and how things are setup for Season 2. But I have soooo many questions. We know Regina and Gold will be at each others throats, but what about the other story book characters Regina betrayed? Won’t they be after her, too? Do Emma and Henry have magic powers or are they just royalty now? Do we get to see Baelfire and Henry’s father next season? And what fairy tale character is Dr. Whale? Inquiring minds want to know.

I think so too, Bae must be Henry’s father! It’s obvious! (lol, at least I think so!)
Great episode! But I would have wanted a more loving (with many kisses) reunion between Rumple & Belle!
And making Regina “loving” Henry! Oh please! The only person she loves is herself!
As for Emma: she rules!

I’m just the slightest bit confused, maybe you can help me out? Is magic coming to Storybrook or is the magic from the fountain going to take them back to the fairytale world (since it was true love that went into the fountain and I think true love is needed to break the curse, maybe this will break it completely?). Or, as I’m guessing, is this just one of the season’s “cliffhangers”? I only ask because I personally enjoy the fairytale world more than Storybrook, so it’d be amazing if that happened for next season.

I think that some of them may be able to go back and forth between worlds now. Rumpel can go looking for Baelfire. Regina can travel back to Wonderland, where IMO her mother Cora is The Queen of Hearts.

i hope they don’t go to fairy world again, most CGI’s scenes are very crappy, unless they find a way to make the scenes with better credible graphics…. it feels like seeing a Playstation game’s CGI scene.

I think magic is coming to Storybrooke. One hint is the title of this episode: Land Without Magic. Plus, that well brings back what is lost. So basically, Rumple is bringing back the magic lost on Storybrooke because of the curse. They are still trap in this world, but now they will have magic. I don’t think Rumple would want to go back to FTL, since Bae is still in this dimension, the reason why he created the dark curse.. :)
So they will all be trapped here for a while, but next season would be the battle between Gold & Regina with magic, and the Charmings with their true love, LOL!

I just re-watched all of the episodes on Hulu because I got my husband hooked into this show – and EQ is told when she enacted the curse that she must be willing to give up this fairytale land altogether because essentially the curse replaces that world. I don’t think they’ll be able to go back, so the only other comclusion I can make is that the magic is coming to Storybrooke. What I’m confused about though is how can the magic that Mr. Gold created be bad. He combined “to bring back what is lost” and “true love.” Shouldn’t that mean that everyone gets their happy endings again?

The finale was amazing. A mother’s love breaking the curse was beautiful. All season I could see that connection of MM&Emma and see Snow in Emma, tonight it was cool to see Emma go all Charming. Gold and Belle’s reunion scene in the shop was beautiful.Perfect. I loved Belle and Jefferson having a scene and hope they explore how Belle ended up locked away and how Jefferson not only knew about Belle but about Rumpel&Belle. I’m also curious on how Snow&Charming took the kingdom back and since Gold was cursed until he heard Emma’s name, how did he know to give the savior’s kid to Regina. The Huntsman reveal/scene rocked but I wanted more of him. It looks like Rumpel is bringing magic to our world and heading towards the path that cost him Belle and Bae in the first place. The season 2 scene I most look forward to is Emma and her parents coming face to face.

I Loved it I just now have all kinds of questions that I wont know the answers to any time soon… Like will they remember their time stuck in Storybrook or will they only remember everything from right before the curse took hold? What’s gonna happen now that magic is coming to the world? What’s gonna happen with all of the betrayed characters? And where will they pick up next season? A few minutes later or…. So many questions and such a long wait!!! I love it and hate it the wait is gonna suck, but I’m super excited to see where they are going to take it!!

That finale was SOOOO beyond epic and completely awesome! My favorite scenes were the ones of Charming and his daughter Emma both fighting the dragon. That was cool! I also loved every second of badass Emma along with the Emma who you could tell was still trying to process everything but was driven by her love for Henry (and she is so going to remain the audience voice of trying to comprehend this whole thing and that she’s a fairy tale character, LOL). Wow, it really was a satisfying finale. =) I enjoyed every single minute of it and had a great time watching with some friends tonight who are also big fans. We gasped, cried, cheered, laughed, gasped again, melted into puddles over Emma & Henry in the hospital, and then went WTH??! over the magical purple smoke monster. Talk about setting things up nicely for the second season! I can’t wait to see what’s coming next and count me as another one who REALLY wants to see the reunion of Emma and her parents. Thanks to all the producers, writers, actors, and crew for creating such a magical show and I’m so ready for season two!! =D

Honestly Emma has the worst luck with guys… :( I’m glad they brought back the Huntsman, but I wish that meant the Sheriff would be back as well. The curse has to be somewhat broken for everyone to remember who they are, so does that August will return to normal man form? I’m really excited for next season!!

love the ending ! season two is going to be awesome! I appreciate the fact that they tide up the loose ends . they did not know if they were coming back for a second season , so it is nice that they tired to give the season closure while starting a new chapter ! other shows in danger of cancellation should take a page from this book . respect the viewers enough to give their show an ending just in case they don’t come back – Bravo to Once a upon a time!

It was awesome. I think it’s so ballsy for them to resolve two of the biggest story arcs (Emma not believing and breaking the curse) in one season and I can’t wait to see where they go next. I expected the former to be resolved but I’m actually quite shocked by the latter. Definitely expected them to drag atleast another season out of that.

SOOOO GOOOOOD! I want to know why everyone in Storybrooke wasn’t mad when they came to??? I always imagined it that way…were they just confused? I wish they would’ve specified so I didn’t have to wait ha ha. Even Emma asked why everyone wasn’t mad. Either way, this is going to be the longest wait ever!

I was more excited about the Rumple and Belle part than the Snow and Charming. Probably because Snow and Charming kind of already had their “Happy Ending” but Rumple and Belle are still trying to get theirs. I can’t wait to see more of that courtship because there is no way they wouldn’t bring back Belle (and also Jefferson) after that finale.

Besides if her new show actually had got picked up it would have been on ABC. It’s easier to do one show and then occasionally another show if they are on the same network. Just because an actor or actress is on one show doesn’t mean they can’t show up on another. Look at Alison Brie she does both Community and Mad Men.

It was great. I once opined that for this series to work, season one it is explained, season two it is contained, season three it is returned, and season four it is settled (the war between good and evil with magic). Glad to see they seem to agree.

Definitely a step up from a good portion of the middle episodes when it seemed like the show was spinning its wheels.

In our recap, I elaborate how floored I am that Hororwitz and Kitsis went all out in a single episode, especially since Emma was literally whining and crying two episodes ago about how she couldn’t handle the responsibility.

Excited to see what comes next. Hoping it’s all about the power grab between Rumple and Evil Queen. Everyone else should take some time to acclimatize to their old personalities in this new location.

I suppose the next season is going to be the journey of getting Rumpy to see that in order to beat Regina, and gain all the power, he’ll have to give it up and join the rest of Storybrooke in their fight against her. In order to keep love, he’ll have to sacrifice it. Hasn’t that been the point of the whole show? Finding true love (in many forms)? I mean, I’m fairly certain that with the return of magic, the people of Storybrooke will be in much the same position that they were before the curse in fairy tale land. All uniting against the Evil Queen. I think that the key to victory (series victory, not just season) will be to resurrect those who had their hearts crushed (I.e. Regina’s lover and Father). Because she didn’t start out evil, I honestly think they’ll end the series with her back to “normal”. We shall see!

I don’t think it’ll be the whole town against one single person. That’s what Rumple wants, but the others aren’t stupid. It won’t take them long to understand that he screwed them over just as much as Regina did by creating the curse that had their happy ends ripped away from them for his selfish desire. And Emma will be so mad at him for how he screwed her with the potion. He was willing to let Henry die for it. I think there will be a lot of battle fields next season. Rumple vs. Regina, Storybrooke vs. Regina, Storybrooke vs. Rumple, etc. And there will most likely be lots of uneasy alliances, similar to the Regina/Emma alliance in the finale, too. I can’t wait!

Pinocchio! I really hope there’s a way to bring him back (I think it would probably be too easy if he returned to being human after the curse was partially broken) I don’t think its fully broken as they didn’t return back as they had thought.

I also really hope the first episode will explore the Charming family. It’ll be interesting to see how the dynamic has changed now that they know that this young woman with a son of her own and is pretty much the same age as them is really their daughter lol.

does it seem ironic to anyone else that a mothers love is the true love that broke the curse and this episode aired on MOTHERS day… hmm wonder if that was planned or just ended up happening that way :)

Does anyone think it will be kind of weird when Snow and Charming realize their daughter is 28… and to be truthful, I’m pretty sure Snow is younger than 28 and charming maybe 28-30 at the most… Even though the curse if broken, they are still stuck in Maine.

Now I’m guessing that for season 2, the war will start and everyone will try to get back home to Fairy Tale Land. But then again… Emma and Henry are not from Fairy Tale Land, not really. Emma was born there, but lived her whole life in the non-magical realm, and Henry is from this world, and also “who the hell is Henry’s father?” I guess that is a question for either, season 2 or a far, far away season.

Okay so season 2 should be about that war, Mr.Gold/Rumpelstiltskin finding his son, trying to punish Regina/Evil Queen. Snow, Charming, Emma and Henry fighting the King and the “Imp.” this should make for a very interesting season. Regina/Evil Queen just lost the only thing she loved, her “son” Henry… and I bet she will so anything to get him back. She blamed Snow for the lost of her beloved stable-boy, Daniel. Now she will blame Emma for the loss of her “son”.

Now, Rumpelstiltskin needed a way into the realm his son disappeared to years before; but he also needed a way back to Fairy Tale Land, since he in no way wishes to live in a world without magic. But then again he hid “true love” so it would be transported with them to the new world and so would magic.

Why was it that only Emma could get that back? Obviously, Emma is “true love” incarnate, but what does that mean for Rumpelstiltskin? He needed her, there’s no way it was only to get the potion back from the dragon. Then it can’t be to go back to Fairy Tale Land since it seems he can care less were he is, as long as he has power….

Emma is 29 years now, and Snow have pretty much the same age, but I don’t think it’s a problem, OUAT revolves around the Emma’s journey and we meet her as an adult, so her lost childhood is relatively secondary.

Brenda, you are not ranting. what you are having is a discussion with other fans of Once Upon A Time. This is one of the many websites where fans can bond with each other and hopefully shouldn’t be called nasty means names because one view isn’t the same as another. Also reading your view is very enjoyable.

It was so good, this episode encapsulated everything I’ve been waiting for to happen… It was amazing. Obviously though, as the last scenes of Storybrooke being given magic, many questions arise, i.e. Will there be any more flashbacks? Will they be able to go back to Fairy Tale Land? Now that Regina has been found out, what will become of her?, among many others… But one scene I am desperately wanting to see next fall is the reunion between Emma and her parents Snow and Charming… Their reunion scene was truly lovely to see… and one last thing: Jennifer REALLY took it up another notch when she was saying goodbye to Henry. She was grand in that scene. I have to say, my favorite scene, it was truly beautiful to watch… Can’t wait for next season!! Yaayy!! Sad this one’s over though. But with this one being over, many questions were answered…

Good night everyone!! Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did!

Thanks for the quick post Matt, I really HATE waiting until the next day for the recaps…

i don’t know what to think of this episode. It was great but the whole hour felt like 5 minutes, I wanted more. I felt like “it’s over already?” So I guess that makes it really great! I wonder what’s gonna happen now. It felt more like a series finale. I hope the writers have more stories left to tell for season 2.

Coming from a world where magic always existed, I think they will take it in stride. If a wooden marionette can be a real boy and dragons need slaying, having a child your own age would be fairly pedestrian.

It was pretty good, I kinda don’t like the true love from emma’s kiss as I always have thought of it as the other kind of love but I guess it works. Also felt sad for Regina for some reason and still like Rumple and Belle together. Is Maleifecent dead cause I kinda liked her? Loved seeing Graham/huntsman. Also cool that magic is back

AWESOME SEASON FINALE!!!!! I DID NOT SEE THAT MALEFICENT TWIST COMING!.
To this day Maleficent has always creeped out but I’ve always been fascinated by her and she is one of the best Disney villians. I wish they used her more. Can’t wait for season 2. :)

I couldn’t pay attention to anything in the show once I recognized they were filming scenes at Lake Kachess in Washington state, where I used to frequently camp as a kid. Does the show do most of their filming in British Columbia? I think they must.

storybrook is filmed in steveston, which is part of richmond bc. i was in steveston this past weekend and walked by red and grannys diner and thought to myself “hey, that cafe looks like red and grannys diner” and immediately, i thought “waitaminute… it IS red and granny’s diner. the whole show is filmed here!” haha

Arrgggh!!! I hope I am wrong, but did anyone else notice the clock stop AGAIN at the same time it was stuck at before? I hope we don’t have a repeat of Season 1 with only Henry and Emma knowing the truth and the curse back in place………….just saying!

I noticed that too, I am hoping is just a coincidence, a way to show that they came full circle, because otherwise would be really dissappointing, you invest a whole season into breaking a curse just for it to be re activated 5 minutes after it broke?

IMO It means that everyone went into auto pilot at 8;15 when the curse was enacted and now everyone will pick up where they left off except in a very different place. They will begin to age again, children will grow etc.

I liked it a lot. Maybe they should have made Emma’s believing more of a process. And the way she “remembered” things like her birth was a litlte weird. But the scenes with Emma and Regina rocked so hard! Best thing about the episode for me. The fairy tale stuff was ok, but we knew how most of it would go anyway. The dragon was really cool though! I hope when Emma threw the sword Maleficent was turned back into her human form and she is not dead. Kristin Bauer needs to come back next season!
I felt really sorry for Regina. She truly loves Henry so much. This is what they like about the show. The villains are not black and white. Regina loves Henry more than anything and Gold loves Belle. It makes them so much more human. But I think Belle looked disappointed when Gold unleashed the magic. It will be interesting how they walk the line between keeping Regina and Gold villains, but also showing that they love and have something good in them. But I have to say. If they do a redemption story for one of them, I would pick Regina for it.